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Contrary to popular belief, it is the year 2007 that marks the
400th anniversary of the founding of the first permanent British
settlement in the New World, or what is now called the United States, and
not 2020.
It appears that many people on both sides of the Atlantic
seem happier with the association between the Pilgrim Fathers arrival in
1620 aboard their ship the Mayflower, rather than the band of
entrepreneurial adventurers that arrived some thirteen years earlier and
included one serial adventurer, Captain John Smith.
This would not be the first time that English feet had
stepped ashore in the New World. The adventurer and courtier to Queen
Elizabeth I,
Sir Walter Raleigh had organised three expeditions in the 1580s in an attempt
to colonise North America. He had even named the area Virginia in honour
of his Virgin Queen.
In was however, in June 1606 that King James I of England (VI
of Scotland) granted a charter to a group of London gentlemen and
merchants known as the Virginia Company, to establish a British settlement
in the Chesapeake area of North America. They had been issued with three
clear objectives; to discover gold, a water route to the South Seas and to
find the Lost Colony of Roanoke.
 Adverse weather conditions initially affected their
departure, however the expedition finally set sail in three small ships,
the Discovery, Susan Constant and Godspeed in December 1606,
with around 140 colonists bound for Virginia.
Apparently John Smith and
Christopher Newport,
the captain in charge of the three ships, clashed during the
voyage and Smith only escaped being hanged for mutiny when sealed orders
were opened that named him one of the leaders of the new colony.
The search for a suitable site for the new colony ended on
May 14th 1607, when the Virginia Company explorers landed on a small
peninsular of land on the banks of a river some 45 miles from the Atlantic
Ocean and entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. They quickly constructed
defences for themselves in the form of a triangular fort and named their
new settlement Jamestown, after their king.
Soon after landing, the colonists discovered that perhaps
they had been a little hasty in selecting Jamestown as their new home. The
swampy, confined site was plagued by mosquitoes, the tidal river water
proved unsuitable for drinking and space for farming was limited. Extreme
weather conditions and the unwelcome attention of the local Native
American tribes compounded to further test their endurance.
Disease, famine and continued attacks by the neighbouring
Algonquian tribe took a heavy toll on the population and it appears that
only the strong and inspired leadership of Captain John Smith kept the
colony from dissolving during its early months and years.
In December
1607, while on an expedition to gather food for the colony, Smith and his
men were attacked by Indians; his men were killed but he was captured and
taken before the chief of the local Powhatan Confederacy. Although he
feared for his life, Smith was eventually released without harm. Smith
attributed his narrow escape in part to the chief’s daughter Pochahontas
whom he claimed had shielded and protected his body with her own.
 In
the months that followed the colony survived thanks mainly due to
periodical visits to the fort by Pochahontas with food aid, and via the
timely arrival of two supply ships from England. As well as delivering
valuable supplies, the ships also brought more colonists and ultimately
more mouths that required feeding.
In 1609, all appeared more positive when the
Third
Supply Relief Fleet
of 9 ships set off from England loaded with fresh supplies
and colonists with which to reinforce Jamestown. Optimism was short lived
however, when the fleet encountered a massive hurricane on the way, and
after being tossed in a storm for four days,
the flagship Sea Venture
was eventually driven onto a reef off the coast of Bermuda. All 150 on
board were landed safely on the then uninhabited island of Bermuda,
effectively castaways.
The remaining ships of the fleet limped into Jamestown in
August 1609, with many of the passengers suffering injuries and sickness
from their journey, thus adding a further 400 hungry mouths to feed.
Just a few weeks later the emerging colony was struck a
further devastating blow when John Smith suffered serious injury in a
gunpowder explosion. The decision was made to transport him back to
England to better treat his wounds. Without his inspirational leadership,
the colony quickly fell into chaos.
The freezing winter that followed Smith's departure was
particularly harsh and the colony entered what was later termed the
Starving Time. Trapped within Jamestown by hostile Indians, the settlers
first ate their way through their livestock; their pets were next on the
menu, shortly followed by the resident rats and mice and then apparently
the residents themselves!
Meanwhile in the paradise that proved to be Bermuda, the
castaways from the Sea Venture led by the likes of
Admiral Sir George Somers, Sir Thomas
Gates and John Rolfe, had not only established a
thriving community, they had managed to keep themselves busy as well.
During their ten months on the island they had found food to be plentiful
and they were able to build a church and houses. From
the wreckage of the Sea Venture they built two further ships, the
Deliverance and the Patience, aboard which they set sail set for
Jamestown in May 1610.
What greeted them when they arrived at the Virginia Colony
however, was not a pretty sight. Almost destroyed by famine and disease,
only 60 settlers had survived that Starving Time winter.
Some weeks later in July 1610, the Fourth Relief Fleet
commanded by Lord Delaware arrived. Loaded with supplies from England, the
total abandonment of Jamestown was narrowly avoided. The colony was now at
least able to survive, although it was as yet far from being economically
viable. The Virginia Company had poured people and resources into the
venture with a zero return on its investment.
Fortunes however started to change quite dramatically in
1612, when John Rolfe, who had introduced a new strain of tobacco into the
colony, started to export it. The taste of Virginia tobacco proved very
much the flavour of the day throughout the taverns and streets of London
and the demand for the new cash crop rose exponentially.
Two years later the tobacco farmer Rolfe married the Powhatan
chief’s youngest daughter Pocahontas, and a period of relative peace with
the Indians followed. During a period of captivity with the colonists,
Pocahontas had previously converted to Christianity and changed her name
to Rebecca.
In 1616, the Rolfes made a public relations trip to England,
where Pocahontas’ exotic looks and regal bearing brought her instant
adoration; she was presented at the court of Queen Anne as a visiting
princess.
“Rebecca” would never return to America. Shortly after the
ship that she had boarded for her journey home had slipped its moorings,
it was realised that Pocahontas was seriously unwell and after sailing
just a few miles down the Thames it docked again at Gravesend. It was here
that she died in 1617, aged just 22, possibly of influenza, pneumonia or
smallpox. She was buried in the nave of the nearby St.George’s Church.
John Rolfe returned to Virginia later that year.
Tobacco quickly became the rage throughout Europe and by 1619
Jamestown was a boom town, exporting more that 10 tons of the precious
leaves. More workers were urgently needed to help bring in the tobacco
crop. Later that year a solution presented itself when a passing Dutch
slave trader willingly exchanged his cargo of 20 Africans for food. These
Africans became indentured servants, similar in position to many poor
Englishmen who traded several years of labour in exchange for passage to
America. The race-based slave trade as we now know it would not start
until the 1680’s.
It appears
that the Jamestown colonists had failed in their original mission to find
a route South Seas, and failed to locate the Lost Colony of Roanoke
Island, but they had at least found gold. Well gold of a type …Golden
Virginia Tobacco!
©
HUK
Useful links
Sir George
Somers
Destinations UK: Lyme Regis
America's 400th Anniversary: Jamestown, Virginia |